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Everyone should agree on this: No more apologies to terrorists

You wouldn’t know it by reading media accounts, but there’s common ground somewhere in the gray space between all the black-and-white bickering between President Obama and the Romney campaign about who said what, when and to whom in the aftermath of the attacks on American embassies. There is a unifying principle that, at least if we are to take the various public statements at face value, should unite Obama, Romney and the press.

Mitt Romney says the Obama administration, under a best-case scenario, sent “mixed messages” to tyrants and terrorists when the only statement from the United States government in the first several hours after an attack on the Egyptian and later-Libyan embassies was one in which the U.S. government apologized for the “hurt religious feelings of Muslims.” (Note: There is mounting evidence to suggest that the “hurt Muslim feelings” explanation is all just a smokescreen, and that the real motivation was the same as it ever was for Islamist radicals: a desire to harm America and kill Americans.)

Mixed messages, Romney, et al. point out, are a staple of the Obama administration. This is the president who will annihilate terrorists with a drone rather than subject them to the horrors of the waterboard; a president who believes in dialogue with even the seediest of foreign dictators, but not with Benjamin Netanyahu, at least not during the Israeli Prime Minister’s current trip through the United States.

Under a worst-case scenario, Romney says, the Obama administration was being soft in a part of the world where such behavior invites further violence, apologizing to terrorists via the Cairo statement (and allowing it to be the only statement of the government for nearly 10 hours) when a more appropriate response would have been, say, death by Barackian drone.

The elites in the press, meanwhile, slammed Romney for politicizing national security. Self-endowed umpires of what constitutes legitimate criticism and what’s “craven” exploitation of a national tragedy, yesterday the press unfurled its reflexive, pro-Obama fury on the person of Mitt Romney for having the compunction to suggest that the president would send “mixed messages” or go soft on the Islamic terrorists.

The national press simply know, without the trouble of independent confirmation, that the White House would have never authorized the Cairo apology, it seems.

President Barack Obama, for his part, says that Romney engaged in ready-fire-aim politics by blaming him for an apology to terrorist bile that, Obama says, the White House neither saw nor authorized. If his argument sounds exactly like the media’s, that’s because it is. In any case, Obama says he wouldn’t have apologized.

So where, you ask, can there possibly be common ground amid all this he-said-she-said recrimination?

Simple: Romney says the administration sent mixed messages that included an apology to terrorists, which should never happen. The media says that Obama did not authorize the apology, because apologies to terrorists should never happen. And Obama simply repeats after the press: No apology was made, because apologies to terrorists should never happen.

There’s our common ground: Apologizing to terrorists should never happen.

Seems simple enough, right?

So then maybe somebody should explain why American officials keep apologizing to terrorists.

Let’s give team Obama the benefit of the doubt. Let’s assume the administration didn’t authorize the Cairo apology, that it was issued only in response to a gathering mob in Cairo and the administration committed a simple oversight in allowing the apology to stand unchallenged for hours.

Ok, fine. That still doesn’t excuse the Cairo apology in the first place. You don’t apologize to an angry mob of radical jihadists protesting outside your embassy. Ever.

And yet, the spokesperson(s) for the embassy did exactly that. Some four hours after the flag over our embassy was set ablaze, senior staff were still at it. “Sorry, but neither breaches of our compound or angry messages will dissuade us from defending freedom of speech AND criticizing bigotry,” they said.

Can you imagine what Harry Truman would have done to these staffers by now, especially after what came next in Libya?

And maybe that’s a good place to start. Fire the pandering embassy officials who felt compelled to suck up to the mob that sacked the U.S. Embassy. What better way to signal that, when it comes to radicals in the Middle East, we are out of the apology business.

Josh Penry is a former minority leader of the Colorado Senate. He is a graduate of Grand Junction High School and Mesa State College.

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By Freida Cook - Thursday, September 13, 2012

Not Freida Cook: Am a relative - Ltpar1

We know from the old saying, “the nuts do not fall far from the tree.” What else but a pathetic message from the State Department could we expect when the big boss (Barry Soetoro) has been traveling the globe, bowing, glad handing and apologizing to every two-bit Muslim leader who would listen. What was he apologizing for a reasonable person might ask? Good question and it is clearly reflected in both his book and in the movie “Obama’s America - 2016. Barack Obama believes as his father did, that the United States was part of the evil Colonial Empire who used and abused the jerkwater countries around the world to develop our wealth. That is why he is bound and determined to tear down the United States and redistribute our wealth. For those of you kool aid drinkers, beter give it up, look at the big picture and ask yourself how will you fare if in fact he does destroy our country rebuilding it in a Marxist/Socialist Model. Chances are you will be be not in the Party Elite Class and will be riding in the back of the bus with the rest of us. Be careful what you wish for because sometimes you get it.

By Bill Hugenberg - Friday, September 14, 2012

Everyone should agree on this: Josh Penry should stop lying to the Sentinel’s readers.

According to Penry, “the only statement from the U.S. government in the first several hours after an attack on the Egyptian and later Libyan-embassies was one in which the U.S. government apologized for the ‘hurt religious feelings of Muslims’.”

However, as Penry must know, the statement in question was issued six hours before those events and contained no “apologies to terrorists”.
The video that provoked protests in Cairo and Benghazi was produced and/or financed by “Coptic Christians” in California and Egypt, but embraced by Koran-burning Evangelical “Christians” across the U.S. – for the obvious purpose of inflaming anti-Islamic sentiments. The video debuted on-line on July 2, but was shown on Egyptian T.V. only last Sunday.

On September 11, anticipating demonstrations, the Cairo embassy attempted to forestall violence and proactively pacify irate Egyptians by issuing a statement disclaiming the video, decrying all forms of religious intolerance, but offering no “apologies” to anyone.

Then Romney – and now Penry—falsely accused the Obama Administration of issuing the Cairo statement in response to and/or during the Cairo protest (not six hours before) – thereby purportedly “sympathizing” with an “attack on American values”.

Contrary to Penry’s assertion, there were no “mixed signals”. Rather, the White House corrected Romney’s false premises by stating the facts: the statement was issued (as a matter of established routine) by threatened personnel “on the ground” in Cairo, had not been cleared in advance, and thus “did not reflect the views of the U.S. Government” – a subtle diplomatic distinction now lost in Romney-Penry falsehoods. Embassy staff have since properly asked what part of their statement was objectionable.

Bill Hugenberg

By Kevin Mccarney - Friday, September 14, 2012

Bill Hugenberg is laughable.

There can ne no defense this time. While Muslim terrorists were attacking or Embassy in Libya and murdering our Ambassador, the President went to bed. He then went to Las Begas for a fund raising trip. He blew off the intelligence nriefing the day before and the day after the attacks.

His 3am phone call came and he slept through it then went to Vegas to party.

By Peter Kolbenschlag - Friday, September 14, 2012

“The idea of using something that some people consider sacred and then parading that out in a negative way is simply inappropriate and wrong. And I wish people wouldn’t do it,” Romney said in an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

By Bill Hugenberg - Friday, September 14, 2012

Kevin McCarney rejoins the flat earth society—forgetting about the time difference and the communications capability of Air Force 1.

The attack in Benghazi started at 10 p.m. local time, 2 p.m. in Washington, on Tuesday, 9/11. The President’s schedule was as follows:

In the morning, the President, the First Lady and White House staff gathered on the South Lawn of the White House to observe a moment of silence to mark the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The moment of silence was pooled press.

Later in the morning, the President and First Lady traveled to the Pentagon Memorial to attend the September 11th Observance Ceremony. There was in-town travel pool coverage.

In the afternoon, the President traveled to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and visited with Wounded Warriors who are being treated at the hospital and their families. This visit was closed press.

Later in the afternoon, the President and the Vice President met with Secretary of Defense Panetta in the Oval Office. That meeting was closed to the press.

The attack continued for four hours on 9/11—and the situation was still unclear when Romney issued his statement at 10 p.m.

President Obama flew to Las Vegas the next day—after making a statement to the Nation.

Laugh all you want.

By Bill Hugenberg - Friday, September 14, 2012

Peter:

What was Romney talking about—his tax returns or the invisible “Golden Plates”? He still hasn’t rejected Evangelical Christians’ intolerant anti-Islamic insults—which end up killing people.

By Bob Arrington - Friday, September 14, 2012

Penry evidently missed something in high school and college - critical thinking, truth and ethics. In an attempt to pander to his party’s neo-leader, he put forth extensions and fantasy of the big lie.
As Justin Rubin writes:
…. At such a grave moment, Mitt Romney could have chosen words to help console and unite a nation in grief. Instead, he launched a false and craven attack on our president.
Romney accused President Obama of “sympathizing” with the murderers and apologizing for American values, based on a statement the president never made.1
Even Republicans were shocked by Romney’s response. “Just calling it a ‘disgrace’ doesn’t really cut it,” says a former John McCain aide.2 “It wasn’t presidential,” according to a former Bush State Department official.3
When faced with a national emergency, Romney rushed to judgment, acted rashly, lied to the American people, and put politics ahead of the national interest.
Here’s what happened. In response to a clearly offensive amateur film defaming Islam, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo condemned efforts “to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims.“4
In a misguided attempt to exploit the Libyan tragedy, Romney falsely attributed this statement to the White House, falsely claimed it was an apology, and falsely identified it as a response to the attacks, even though it was made before the attacks.5
In fact, while President Obama rightly rejected the denigration of religious beliefs, he strongly condemned the attacks, saying, “we must all unequivocally oppose the kind of senseless violence that took the lives of these public servants.“6
Americans are probably asking themselves today whether Romney failed a critical test of leadership. … 7
1. “Obama Condemns Attack That Kills Ambassador to Libya,” The New York Times, September 12, 2012 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=280653&id=51585-19215407-oV6pA5x&t=4
2. “Foreign Policy Hands Voice Disbelief At Romney Cairo Statement,” BuzzFeed, September 12, 2012 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=280582&id=51585-19215407-oV6pA5x&t=5
3. Ibid.
4. “An embassy statement, a tweet, and a major misunderstanding,” The Washington Post, September 13, 2012 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=280652&id=51585-19215407-oV6pA5x&t=6
“Mitt Romney will never be president,” Salon.com, September 12, 2012 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=280608&id=51585-19215407-oV6pA5x&t=7
5. Ibid.
6. “Obama Addresses Libya Attacks, Death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens,” The Huffington Post, September 12, 2012 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=280661&id=51585-19215407-oV6pA5x&t=8
7. “Foreign Policy Hands Voice Disbelief At Romney Cairo Statement,” BuzzFeed, September 12, 2012 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=280582&id=51585-19215407-oV6pA5x&t=9

And now, Penry follows the same lies and deceit. He calls for firing of embassy people for pandering and he should be subject to his own remedies with the Sentinel.
THERE WAS NO APOLOGY MADE!

By Bob Arrington - Friday, September 14, 2012

@Not Frieda Cook:
Kool Aid drinkers, as coined for derogatory reference of ‘blind followers’, is fairly pathetic in its usage. It represents the death of, men, women, and children, that were devout Christians that let their devotion lead them into irreversible tragedy. It is probably more apropos to apply this type of behavior to the current tea party movement. It calls you to blindly believe preposterous claims calling them Christian, patriotic, or combating phantom threats of calamity but constantly appealing to a person’s fear and loathing. It blinds you to the ‘Jim Jones’ big lie.
Your entire rant reflects internet and email garbage and lies with out original thought with the exception of the final line where you realize YOU will not be ‘Elite’ the bus you got on and went to the back.

By Kevin Mccarney - Friday, September 14, 2012

Bill you can spin it all you want, but the President failed. He went to bed when the outcome of the Attack on the Embassy in Libya was unknown. He had 48 hours warning that something was imminent in the Middle east and did nothing to beef up security, did nothing to warn the Ambassador flying back to Libya who was killed in the attack.

You can sit there and defend all you want, but all that makes you look is completely clueless. Now today we are graced with the President speaking at the return of the dead from Libya, when he could have prevented it.

Your excuse and the President’s? Blame it on a You Tube Video that has been out for 6 months. Gee, go figure the Muslim Radicals would attack on September 11th. Who knew? The “Free” Press, shills for the Democrats and people like you Bill can deny all you want, but the incidents at the beginning of this week were a concerted attack on Sovereign US Territory by radical Islamists who do not fear a weakened United States.

This is what comes from the apologist tour started in 2009 by President Obama.